On Friday, January 19 at 0:00 a.m. (UTC), we hosted an AMA on the Avalaunch Telegram group with Dreadsong from the Aether Games team. We learnt about their grand vision and what sets them apart from the competition in the Web3 gaming space. This was also an opportunity for the Avalaunch to ask their questions – congratulations to those who were selected!
Below you can read our AMA session with Aether Games:
Aether Games x Avalaunch AMA
Avalaunch
Ladies and Gentlemen, esteemed guests, and passionate gamers from around the world, welcome to this exclusive and exhilarating AMA brought to you by Avalaunch. Today, we are beyond thrilled to have the unique opportunity to delve deep into the world of gaming with the brilliant minds behind Aether Games.
Today we have an esteemed part of the Aether team, @DreadsongAEG
@DreadsongAEG how are you today?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Pretty good overall
A bit awkward on the timezone though as it’s currently 1am
So hopefully I don’t do any blunders in text due to the late time on my end haha
Avalaunch
Let’s delve right in then as it’s later than is ideal. Blunders will be promptly forgiven. Can you give us a brief intro of yourself and how you became involved with Aether Games?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Absolutely
Hello everyone — Dreadsong here, BD and AMA host of AetherGames; I’ve joined the crypto space back in the bullrun of 2021, interested primarily in the tech and the overall aggressive growth of the industry. Been involved with all branches of the crypto market since then — DeFi sector, GameFi or NFTs, I’ve worked in each sector and know each of them quite well. Besides this, I have a background of having worked at EA Games and Bioware for a few years, specifically on titles like FIFA, Need for Speed and Anthem. Graduated Foreign Languages, philology branch, with a major in Slavistics and a minor in English.
As for my involvement with Aether; I have been with the company since essentially day 0. Aether launched their community back in November 2021 and I joined a day after server launch on the back of one of the communities I was a part of. Ever since then, I stayed with the company, and at this stage, have literally been with them through good and the absolute worst (this bear was a headache and a half)
Not quite brief but hey — gotta keep it spiced up
Avalaunch
Welcome Class of 2021! Always good to see survivors who have been forged in the crucible of a long bear market. Makes for more resilient teams. Appreciate the answer. Can you give our audience an overview of the vision at Aether Games and what the team has built so far?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Definitely — for starters;
To give a general introduction on what AetherGames is, we’re a Web2.5 transmedia development studio focused on gaming and entertainment. Currently, we specifically focus on blending traditional and blockchain gaming, aiming at merging fantasy narratives with blockchain technology.
As a transmedia company, we are currently engaged in two major ventures: the gaming industry which we’ve tapped into with our gaming title, Aether TCG — this being our card game which doubles down as an IP platform utilizing a Gaming as a service model, and our forthcoming endeavor in the entertainment industry with our series, the Aether Saga, which we’ve actually teased on the 14th of December, with a bit of the starting sequence from the first episode
From a team perspective, we have a team that boasts both heavy gaming AND entertainment experience, who’ve been involved in the production of a number of very popular AAA titles such as the latest 2023 Game of the Year-winning Baldur’s Gate 3, and other titles such as Hearthstone, FarCry6, God of War, Raid: Shadowlegends and plenty others
Our CGI director has also been involved in the making of 2 very popular Love, Death & Robots episodes, specifically Snow in the Desert and Beyond the Aquila Rift
Besides these, we’ve also been the Golden Reel Awards Judge since 2016, with 2023 included.
Avalaunch
This is an impressive set of resumes to be sure and web2.5 is coinable if that wasn’t you. Great work on the fundamentals which looks like it could be a great driver for the token which brings me to…
Registration for the Aether Games strategic sale is now open, users can get their hands on AEG — the token powering the Aether universe. Can you talk about the utility of AEG and what built-in mechanics you have to ensure it accrues value and can support sustainable long-term growth?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Let’s dive into the above more in-depth:
Currently, in our ecosystem, there’s🥇and ❄️
🥇is not a token but simply a game currency to purchase any asset (not NFT). This ranges from cards, pets, heroes, maps, emotes, cosmetics and campaign mode content.
It cannot be sold and is locked to your game account.
❄️ is the token and is used as a crafting material
Simply put: cards + ❄️ = NFT
This counts for any asset.
NFTs are traded and sold among each other and purchased later on through our marketplace using ❄️ as the currency, and along the way as our gas fee also.
Rewards that are given are mostly 🥇 , non-NFT assets and crafting materials (dragon tooth, demon eye etc.)
When there’s a reward we give from events it’s always in USDT or assets.
Assets that are NFT can be disenchanted later on and you receive about 40–60% back based on the rarity of the card. For example a legendary card costs $10 fixed in ❄️ to convert, but when disenchanted you get $4–6 back albeit along with valuable crafting materials.
Legendary cards sell for $100–300 so there’s very little incentive to disenchant these, allowing for many tokens to be nested inside assets, and contributing towards a higher token price.
Avalaunch
I appreciate the stable coin part as well. This is pretty robust utlity and again, having to endure that headache and a half of a bear does help with ingenuity. Can you share details for the TGE and what plans you have for liquidity?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Absolutely — TGE is currently planned for the end of February, after Chinese New Year. We’ll be listing on a Tier 1 exchange first and for a clean launch we will add liquidity on DEXs slightly after listing, in order to prevent any sort of snipers. We add more liquidity over time as the price discovers itself. However, we will not reveal the exact amount in the liquidity pool just yet, but it will obviously be a hefty amount.
Avalaunch
I could tell easily enough so we’re good. Moving on — Aether Games has some of the most talented team members from the gaming, entertainment and CGI industries. Can you share more about the team behind Aether? How does this unique blend of expertise help to set you apart from other studios?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
I covered this slightly in a previous answer, but to go further in-depth:
We have a strong founding team of 5 members, which includes the creator of Primal Carnage, an Esports celebrities manager, a Hollywood audio director, and a 6-year Unit Image CG Generalist veteran.
Essentially, what heavily sets us apart is that our in-house game development is on par with Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Riot Games. Our team encompasses CGI Hollywood-level producers, composers, and financial managers with accomplished projects for Netflix, Hulu, and HBO, that have worked on over 400 projects (games, series, movies)
Some of the previous titles worked on:
— SMITE
— Vikings: War of Clans
— Star Wars: Battlefront 2
— Hearthstone
— Raid: Shadowlegends
— Honor of Kings
— Primal Carnage (created by Aether Founding Member)
— Love, Death & Robots
Avalaunch
Appreciate the added detail and it’s good to emphasize the pedigree of this team and their work, so onto the game…The beta version of Aether’s Trading Card Game is currently live on the Epic Games Store. Could you share some details about the TCG? Additionally, what are the next steps on the Aether roadmap that the community can look forward to?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
You can look at us as essentially the Magic The Gathering of Web3 — we plan to utilize our game as a platform that houses a plethora of different IPs, with focus being set on Web2 IPs. We already have an extremely strong multi-billion dollar company signed in with us which will bring its own IP in for us to utilize in-game — this will later on be followed by other massive Web2 names.
This would cover both the game aspect and the roadmap: we are currently in talks with a multitude of entities and franchises such as Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Boys and are in very deep discussions with Warner Brothers, which would unlock us access to other major titles such as Mortal Kombat etc.
The above would be a pretty good vision into what our roadmap could look like over the coming months and years, with focus being on implementation of different franchises into our title and universe, and essentially, actively tapping into these massive Web2 fanbases.
Community Questions
Avalaunch
I’m sensing you’ve been asked these type of questions before 😃so let’s get a wild card into the mix and move right into the community portion of the program where things get weird and prizes are on the line.
Our friendly neighborhood @Fil936 asks — Do you plan to launch other games in addition to Aether TGC?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Yes. Our plan is to launch a second game, albeit timeline on it is TBD, and as production on it has been paused (it was in active development prior to the release of our TCG) I cannot give too many details on it. Plans were originally for it to be an AR Pokemon-GO-type game, but we scrapped that idea and are now exploring other genres for it to release under
Avalaunch
That’s exciting stuff. @BGerbera wants to know — Why did Aether Games embrace both fiat currency and cryptocurrency for in-game purchase
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Ease of accessibility for both Web2 and Web3 audiences;
FIAT currency in-game purchases make it extremely easy for the average traditional gamer to jump into the game and purchase assets at his convenience, whilst the crypto purchases are optimal for the average Web3 user
Avalaunch
It’s that web2.5 thing. I think it’s smart. Anything to make that transition seamless and garner both audiences is a must at this point. Here’s @RopLen with a 2-parter — What reasons are there to continue playing for a player accustomed to this type of game? There are several card games out there, why should he choose Aether Games?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
We believe that from a quality perspective, we stand out quite heavily in comparison to our competitors.
There’s only a very specific title in the market currently that we would consider being on par with our level of quality, but they are very different from us so I wouldn’t say they’re direct competition.
At the end of the day, many card games in the market currently have the tendency to take their own spin to the genre, making it so that players have the liberty to choose which one fits their interests the best; be it Sci-Fi, Fantasy or more modern takes on TCGs
But for a more direct answer, our tournament systems definitely bring a motivational factor into play
Avalaunch
Yeah. There’s not a lot of discernment from crypto people when it comes to assessing offerings like this and yet, it makes all the difference. This team’s experience and development to date confers a lot of advantages.
Well done. How can I trade or sell my cards or characters with other players? What platform or marketplace should I use, and what commissions or taxes apply? From @SenaidHughes
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Cards are currently tradeable through the main popular Web3 marketplaces, such as OpenSea and Magic Eden, albeit we plan to introduce our own marketplace in the near future to maximize ease of access for this feature, essentially, at current stage.
You can utilize 3rd party platforms for the trading options — but soon enough everything will be possible to be done directly through our platform.
Avalaunch
An NFT platform is a project by itself so the comprehensiveness of what you’re building is impressive. Our very own @EvissFord_BTC has a question — One major fundamental weakness for many gaming and blockchain projects is an unsustainable fee vs reward model. How unique is the revenue model of Aether Games that enables it to remain sustainable for the long term?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
We are not a P2E game.
By default, this removes the unsustainability vs reward feature from the get-go.
The player reward system comes in through more of a skill 4 earn system (not exactly an official term in the markets, more like something I coined on the go lol), and it primarily rewards users through the tokenisation of assets functionality and participation into tournaments, giving us a heavy Esports setting from very early on.
As for the revenue part — we utilize a much more traditional Web2 approach, which is partially based on in-game purchases, but also on usage of our token.
Avalaunch
The irreverent @zenobiapollard72 believes in you all and wants to know how she can become an ambassador for Aether Games? Does Aether Games have any plans for building local communities, especially in non-English-speaking countries?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
We don’t currently have an ambassador program the type Web2 games do, and this is primarily due to our early development stage — however, we do indeed plan to aggressively extend throughout different sectors of the globe, and house local communities of different localizations; even now, we house quite a large Slavic player base.
Avalaunch
Well you have a request then. There is some good visibility for you all and Avalanche wants you all on a subnet but all in due course. Do the token holders have the right to participate in the governance of Aether Games? What kind of decisions can they vote on about Aether Games? What are the benefits of holding Aether Games tokens? Question brought to you by @Concutrangxoa
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Parts of this were briefly answered on the question regarding token utility — on the other end; we do have plans to organize a potential DAO, but it is still in the works; I cannot give an exact answer to the governance question as the system isn’t yet fully polished.
Avalaunch
Fair enough. Tell us a little bit about security at Aether Games. Have you done an audit of the platform? Are the smart contracts error-free? What are the test results? This is from none other than @EzequielMarrero
Dreadsong | Aether Games
We have done multiple audits which came back with near-perfect results, showcasing the overall stability and safety of the platform
Pretty straight-forward answer here
Avalaunch
That’s always good to hear, particularly the results as so many audits have to be dragged out for myriad reasons. Coming down to the final couple of questions Sir.
Anticipation is building Will you consider to hold game tournament or interactive community events that can make Aether Games community more solid in the future? @badu_crypto
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Over the past months, we’ve held a variety of different tournaments with major cash prize pools, most of them with pools worth $10.000
We have the tendency to host one of these every few months, and we also host smaller community-gated tournaments for different guilds
So the answer is yes, and it has been a practice for a good while now, even pre game release from an in-community standpoint.
Avalaunch
That’s a good size pool for sure. You have nearly run the gauntlet and your answers have been both pithy and poignant. Much appreciated. To close the show @DreadsongAEG let’s ask something game-related from @JohnMartial1 I am so, curious to know about these 10 ADVENTURERS so, can you give detailed information about these ?
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Absolutely –
We have a range of Adventurer cards which essentially function as hero cards; each of them comes with its unique trait and interacts differently with the multiple factions available in the game
Aisha for example is a tempo-enhancing Adventurer, as she decreases the resource-cost of cards in your hand by 1
Aurelia on the other hand is the exact opposite of Aisha, instead increasing the opponent’s resource-cost of cards
Then we have Adventurers like Dona which provide healing based on the amount of unspent resource at the end of your turn
And on the opposite side, the Revenger who deals damage to your opponent’s Adventurer based on the amount of unspent resource
There’s definitely an Adventurer for everyone’s playstyle, and there’s a major difference between the playstyle of each of them.
Avalaunch
Thank you! It’s been a pleasure having you with us and this is an AMA that will make for a good read as well. We’ll have it transcribed and posted to our blog for good measure. We wish you continued success leading up to your launch and look forward to hosting the strategic sale with us. Onward and upward. 🤝
Dreadsong | Aether Games
Thank you for having me, was definitely an enjoyable AMA — I wish everyone a good night (considering it’s past midnight on my end lol) and to take care
Avalaunch
Take care and thanks again.
